Flushing Central Heating
 

A friend is having trouble getting his downstairs radiators hot. (Upstairs
it balanced down to a minimum)
A plmber has replaced the pump to no avail. Today he did a power flush but
he connected to a radiator flow and return. I had assumed that flushing was
normally done at the pump connectors.

If there is a blockage then I believe the pipes under the floor are the
problem.

Sould he be trying to connect the power flush into one radiator - and the
return into a different radiator?

Flushing Central Heating
 

On 05/03/2014 15:43, DerbyBorn wrote:
A friend is having trouble getting his downstairs radiators hot. (Upstairs
it balanced down to a minimum)
A plmber has replaced the pump to no avail. Today he did a power flush but
he connected to a radiator flow and return. I had assumed that flushing was
normally done at the pump connectors.

If there is a blockage then I believe the pipes under the floor are the
problem.

Sould he be trying to connect the power flush into one radiator - and the
return into a different radiator?

Chances are that any blockages are *inside* the radiators rather than in
the pipes. Best way of dealing with that is to take all the rads off and
take them outside and flush each one out with a hosepipe.

Then flush the pipes (with the rads out) by opening one radiator valve
at a time until the water runs clear.
--
Cheers,
Roger
____________
Please reply to Newsgroup. Whilst email address is valid, it is seldom
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Flushing Central Heating
 

Roger Mills wrote in
:

On 05/03/2014 15:43, DerbyBorn wrote:
A friend is having trouble getting his downstairs radiators hot.
(Upstairs it balanced down to a minimum)
A plmber has replaced the pump to no avail. Today he did a power
flush but he connected to a radiator flow and return. I had assumed
that flushing was normally done at the pump connectors.

If there is a blockage then I believe the pipes under the floor are
the problem.

Sould he be trying to connect the power flush into one radiator - and
the return into a different radiator?

Chances are that any blockages are *inside* the radiators rather than
in the pipes. Best way of dealing with that is to take all the rads
off and take them outside and flush each one out with a hosepipe.

Then flush the pipes (with the rads out) by opening one radiator valve
at a time until the water runs clear.

I am thinking that the lowest pipes are likely to be sludged. The rads had
new TRVs fitted a couple of years ago so some draining down was done.

why the heck don't all plumbers fit and exterior drain point????

Flushing Central Heating
 

On 05/03/2014 15:43, DerbyBorn wrote:
A friend is having trouble getting his downstairs radiators hot. (Upstairs
it balanced down to a minimum)
A plmber has replaced the pump to no avail. Today he did a power flush but
he connected to a radiator flow and return. I had assumed that flushing was
normally done at the pump connectors.

If there is a blockage then I believe the pipes under the floor are the
problem.

Sould he be trying to connect the power flush into one radiator - and the
return into a different radiator?

We had our radiators balanced a couple of years ago as 1 radiator was
never getting as warm as all the others, but now it does.

Flushing Central Heating
 

On 05/03/2014 16:53, DerbyBorn wrote:


why the heck don't all plumbers fit and exterior drain point????

Well, this *is* DIY - why don't *you*?

I've got drain lockshields on all my rads, making it easy to drain
individual rads without spilling any water. Since it's a vented system,
if I remove a rad to decorate behind it, I can put the drained water
back into the F&E tank so as not to lose the inhibitor.

That wouldn't apply if I were doing a system flush, of course.
--
Cheers,
Roger
____________
Please reply to Newsgroup. Whilst email address is valid, it is seldom
checked.

Flushing Central Heating
 

On 05/03/2014 15:43, DerbyBorn wrote:
A friend is having trouble getting his downstairs radiators hot. (Upstairs
it balanced down to a minimum)
A plmber has replaced the pump to no avail. Today he did a power flush but
he connected to a radiator flow and return. I had assumed that flushing was
normally done at the pump connectors.

If there is a blockage then I believe the pipes under the floor are the
problem.

Sould he be trying to connect the power flush into one radiator - and the
return into a different radiator?

So long as you isolate the various parts of the system so that you are
flushing each individual bit in sequence, it should not really matter.
The procedure is described he

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php?...g_ Procedures



--
Cheers,

John.

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Flushing Central Heating
 

On 05/03/2014 16:53, DerbyBorn wrote:
Roger Mills wrote in
:

On 05/03/2014 15:43, DerbyBorn wrote:
A friend is having trouble getting his downstairs radiators hot.
(Upstairs it balanced down to a minimum)
A plmber has replaced the pump to no avail. Today he did a power
flush but he connected to a radiator flow and return. I had assumed
that flushing was normally done at the pump connectors.

If there is a blockage then I believe the pipes under the floor are
the problem.

Sould he be trying to connect the power flush into one radiator - and
the return into a different radiator?

Chances are that any blockages are *inside* the radiators rather than
in the pipes. Best way of dealing with that is to take all the rads
off and take them outside and flush each one out with a hosepipe.

Then flush the pipes (with the rads out) by opening one radiator valve
at a time until the water runs clear.

I am thinking that the lowest pipes are likely to be sludged. The rads had
new TRVs fitted a couple of years ago so some draining down was done.

why the heck don't all plumbers fit and exterior drain point????

If Microbore (8/10mm) then blockage in the pipes is quite possible
especially if inhibitor wasnt added when the TRVs were installed.

Flushing Central Heating
 

robert wrote in
:

On 05/03/2014 16:53, DerbyBorn wrote:
Roger Mills wrote in
:

On 05/03/2014 15:43, DerbyBorn wrote:
A friend is having trouble getting his downstairs radiators hot.
(Upstairs it balanced down to a minimum)
A plmber has replaced the pump to no avail. Today he did a power
flush but he connected to a radiator flow and return. I had assumed
that flushing was normally done at the pump connectors.

If there is a blockage then I believe the pipes under the floor are
the problem.

Sould he be trying to connect the power flush into one radiator -
and the return into a different radiator?

Chances are that any blockages are *inside* the radiators rather
than in the pipes. Best way of dealing with that is to take all the
rads off and take them outside and flush each one out with a
hosepipe.

Then flush the pipes (with the rads out) by opening one radiator
valve at a time until the water runs clear.

I am thinking that the lowest pipes are likely to be sludged. The
rads had new TRVs fitted a couple of years ago so some draining down
was done.

why the heck don't all plumbers fit and exterior drain point????

If Microbore (8/10mm) then blockage in the pipes is quite possible
especially if inhibitor wasnt added when the TRVs were installed.



It is 15mm

Flushing Central Heating
 

In article 6,
DerbyBorn writes:
Roger Mills wrote in
:

On 05/03/2014 15:43, DerbyBorn wrote:
A friend is having trouble getting his downstairs radiators hot.
(Upstairs it balanced down to a minimum)
A plmber has replaced the pump to no avail. Today he did a power
flush but he connected to a radiator flow and return. I had assumed
that flushing was normally done at the pump connectors.

If there is a blockage then I believe the pipes under the floor are
the problem.

Sould he be trying to connect the power flush into one radiator - and
the return into a different radiator?

Chances are that any blockages are *inside* the radiators rather than
in the pipes. Best way of dealing with that is to take all the rads
off and take them outside and flush each one out with a hosepipe.

Then flush the pipes (with the rads out) by opening one radiator valve
at a time until the water runs clear.

I am thinking that the lowest pipes are likely to be sludged. The rads had

Sludge tends to collect in the slowest flow parts of the system
where it drops out out the flow, which are the radiators.

This is easy to diagnose - if the bottom of the radiator remains
colder than the radiator's return pipe when the system has warmed
up to steady state, then that's because the radiator is sludged up.

OTOH, if the radiator return pipe is also cool, then that implies
that the radiator has insufficient flow, possibly because the system
hasn't been correctly balanced, or because of a blockage in the
pipework or valves. Blockage in the stop valve (used to balance the
system) is not uncommon because they are often only open a crack.
Fully opening to clear this and then resetting back to the original
position can sometimes solve that.

new TRVs fitted a couple of years ago so some draining down was done.

why the heck don't all plumbers fit and exterior drain point????

Some probably do, but this is the type of quality you are more likely
to find in a good DIY system. I have two low points, and therefore 4
drain points (fitted in both flow and return), and they're all carried
outside (even though the drain cocks are not all outside).

If you take the radiators off to clean, bare in mind the sludge is a
potent black dye if spilled on a carpet or similar.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]